Eli Hoff

Eli Hoff is an award-winning journalist who covers Mizzou sports for the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. He is also a radio contributor to KTRS (550 AM) in the St. Louis market and a regular guest on a wide range of TV and radio programs. 

Previously, he covered higher education and politics for the Columbia Missourian, routinely breaking stories in a competitive market. Eli also worked as a Washington, D.C. correspondent for the Columbia Missourian and Missouri News Network, where he anchored a one-reporter bureau.

Eli has been developing his journalistic skills since he launched a soccer news site at 14. Eli has reported on national and state politics, sports, education and public health in the years since.

Eli’s work has also appeared in the Columbia Daily Tribune, the Jefferson City News Tribune, Major League Soccer, SB Nation, Vox Magazine and been syndicated by the Associated Press. His versatile skillset — including investigative reporting, feature writing and documentary production — has been honored by the Associated Press Sports Editors, the National Sports Media Association, the Hearst Foundation, Society of Professional Journalists and Missouri Press Association.

Eli holds a master's degree from the University of Missouri School of Journalism. His graduate research explored how sports journalists' use of basketball analytics educates fans on the sport.

When he's not writing about sports, Eli is often watching them — from soccer to basketball and football to Formula 1. He also enjoys comic books, hiking and a well-executed French dip.

Scoops. Features. Analysis. Stories.

As a college sports beat writer for a major metro newspaper — and before that, stints covering higher education and politics — Eli is familiar with all kinds of reporting and storytelling. Check out some of his award-winning stories below.

The St. Louis Post-Dispatch •

Mizzou spent more than $31 million on NIL for athletes in the last year, records show

COLUMBIA, Mo. — The University of Missouri athletics department has spent more
than $31 million on name, image and likeness compensation for its athletes during the past year,
according to financial records.

Mizzou’s NIL spending reflects the university’s push to compete in football and men’s
basketball under the terms of a modern college sports landscape that has spawned a lucrative
market for athletes.

The records show that nearly two-thirds of the money in 2024 went to football players and about
a fourth to men’s basketball. The remainder was split among baseball, women’s basketball and
lower-profile programs.

MU’s spending in the past month alone shows how the school has tried to take advantage of a
disruption in the NIL market, distributing an influx of cash to athletes before the landmark House
v. NCAA settlement takes effect soon and imposes a de facto salary cap.
The St. Louis Post-Dispatch •

Mizzou's Damon Wilson II sues Georgia athletics association, escalating NIL contract dispute

COLUMBIA Mo. — Missouri defensive end Damon Wilson II has sued the athletic association at Georgia, his former school, upping the stakes of a legal battle over name, image and likeness rights that could have wider ramifications for college sports.

Wilson’s lawsuit, filed Tuesday in Boone County, counters Georgia’s previous effort to bring the star college football player to arbitration over his transfer. The 42-page complaint filed by Wilson’s attorneys disputes the enforceability of a term sheet he signed at Georgia and goes on the offensive, alleging the school waged a “coordinated campaign to financially punish Wilson” over his exit.
The Columbia Missourian •

‘No other option’: Afghans put trust in strangers from Missouri before harrowing escape to safety

The sun has just risen, and Timothy Griffin thinks he’s killed Shela Alokozai.

He’s sitting at his laptop in Jefferson City. He doesn’t know where she or her children are, but he can assume.

Griffin is a military man. He had worked as a counterinsurgency specialist for the U.S. Army in Afghanistan. He understands what happens in these situations.

And so, when a suicide bomber detonates among a crowd outside the Kabul airport’s Abbey Gate, Griffin assumes the worst.
The St. Louis Post-Dispatch •

Another extension for Mizzou football coach Eli Drinkwitz? Here’s what could be coming.

COLUMBIA, Mo. — Another week, another prominent college football program firing its head coach, another instance of Missouri coach Eli Drinkwitz’s name popping up as a potential candidate.

Last week, it was Penn State. This week, it’s Florida. Given the apparent proclivity of schools to dismiss coaches midseason in 2025, there will probably be others soon enough.

Where’s it all headed for Drinkwitz and Mizzou?

It’s still too early for anyone involved to confidently say, but there’s optimism in MU’s administrative circles that this turn of the coaching carousel will end with the popular coach still in Columbia.
The St. Louis Post-Dispatch •

Hoff: Is Mizzou’s offense ‘predictable?’ I calculated playcalling tendencies to find out.

COLUMBIA, Mo. — You’re a defensive coordinator, calling plays against the Missouri offense. The Tigers want to move the ball and score. You need to stop them.

Mizzou has a first-and-10 to start its drive, backed up inside its own 20-yard line, so you like your chances. You have a very good idea of what’s coming. The Tigers run the ball 83.3% of the time in this situation, so you call a play that packs the area around the line of scrimmage with defenders. MU’s Ahmad Hardy is very good, but your play call — your research — was better.

It works, and you stuff him at the line. No gain.

Now it’s second-and-10 for Missouri. Again, you have a good guess at what’s coming. Mizzou passes the ball 84.6% of the time in this situation. You drop back in zone. Maybe your coverage is sound and the Tigers can’t complete a pass. Maybe you allow a shorter completion.

Either way, you also feel good about third down. In this part of the field, MU throws the ball 87.5% of the time on third down, so you’ll emphasize coverage again. Your job isn’t easy, but it’s a lot easier when you know what your opponent is going to do.

Lately, a lot of Missouri’s opponents seem to know what it’s going to do. The Tigers’ offense has struggled this season, thrusting playcalling into the spotlight.
The St. Louis Post-Dispatch •

Source: Mizzou administration approves extension for Eli Drinkwitz, now awaiting signature

COLUMBIA, Mo. — University of Missouri administration greenlit a proposed contract extension for football coach Eli Drinkwitz on Wednesday, a source familiar with ongoing discussions told the Post-Dispatch.

The UM System Board of Curators met in closed session Wednesday afternoon to discuss the proposed terms, paving the road for a new long-term deal for the sixth-year coach.
The Columbia Missourian •

MU Hospital security provoked and pepper-sprayed patients, federal probe shows

Federally authorized investigators discovered “an unsafe patient care environment”
severe enough to place “all patients at the facility at risk” during an unannounced visit to MU
Health Care’s University Hospital in September 2020.

That situation, called an Immediate Jeopardy, required swift correction from the hospital:
Investigators had found violations of patients’ rights, according to documents from a U.S. health
care agency reviewed by the Missourian.
The Midwest Center for Investigative Reporting •

‘Is this legal?’: Why an obscure data service has been sued nearly 100 times for facilitating anti-competitive behavior

In the mid-2000s, a poultry researcher approached James MacDonald, then a branch chief for the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Economic Research Service, with some data. Its detail and depth shocked him.

“My reaction was, ‘Jeez, is this legal?’” MacDonald said.

The question remains unanswered, albeit not for lack of trying: Agri Stats — a widely utilized, privately-held data and analytics firm for the meat processing industry — has been named in more than 90 lawsuits since 2016, making it the second-most sued company in the industry over that time span (Tyson Foods is first). All the lawsuits accuse the company of facilitating anti-competitive behavior because, with the almost real-time data, meat processors can see what their counterparts are planning.

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